BabyNames.com Announces Top Names of 2006

PR Newswire ^

[Republican Red]

BabyNames.com Announces Top Names of 2006

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the popular website BabyNames.com, Ava and Aidan were the top names for 2006. For the first time in five years, Madison slipped from the number one girl's name to number four. On the boys' side, rhyming names Aiden, Caden, Braden and Jaden continue to dominate the charts.

The BabyNames.com Top Names List is calculated from the favorite name lists of over a million site members for the year 2006.

"Celebrity culture always has an influence on naming trends," says Jennifer Moss, founder and CEO of BabyNames.com, "but it seems like it has increased in recent years."

Moss says the name Ava started becoming popular after celebrity couple Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillipe chose the name for their daughter in 1999. Other celeb parents who chose the name Ava include X-Man Hugh Jackman and TV star Heather Locklear.

But if you think the Federlines were the first celeb couple to go with the name Jayden, you are mistaken. Jaden (and its various spellings) first started appearing on BabyNames.com lists after Will Smith and Jada Pinkett chose the name for their son back in 1998.

"It usually takes 3-4 years for a new name to make it from the celebrities to the masses," says Moss, "and that's only if the names are not too wild!"

So although Pilot Inspektor and Fifi Trixibelle will probably not be topping the charts anytime soon, keep an eye out for Suri [Cruise] and Shiloh [Jolie-Pitt] to appear in the forthcoming years.

THE BABYNAMES.COM MOST POPULAR NAMES for 2006

BOYS
• 1. AIDAN/AIDEN/ADEN =
  
• 2. CADEN/KADEN =
  
• 3. BRADEN/BRAYDEN/BRAEDEN +
  
• 4. JADEN/JAYDEN +
  
• 5. ETHAN -
  
• 6. CONNOR/CONNER +
  
• 7. ADDISON +
  
• 8. RILEY +
  
• 9. CALEB -
  
• 10. LOGAN -
  
• 11. HAYDEN -
  
• 13. NOAH -
  
• 14. AVERY +
  
• 15. JACOB -
  
• 16.RYAN -
  
• 17.CAMERON -
  
• 18. ALEXANDER +
  
• 19. AARON +
  
• 20. TRISTAN +
  
  

  GIRLS
  
  

• 1. AVA +
  
• 2. ABIGAIL +
  
• 3. KAELYN/CAILYN +
  
• 4. MADISON -
  
• 5. EMMA -
  
• 6. ISABELLA +
  
• 7. BAILEY +
  
• 8. CHLOE -
  
• 9. OLIVIA +
  
• 10. HANNAH +
  
• 11. ISABELLE/ISABEL +
  
• 12. GRACE +
  
• 13. ELLA +
  
• 14. ABBY/ABBIE +
  
• 15. CADENCE -
  
• 16. ALEXIS -
  
• 17. TAYLOR -
  
• 18. PAIGE +
  
• 19. HAILEY -
  
• 20. EMILY -
  
  
  + Increased position from 2005
  - Decreased position from 2005
  = Same rank as 2005
  

[Dante3]

Ava surprised me. In my daughter's classes there were none with that name, and a name book I have doesn't even list it. Also, I had not expected Tristan.

[MikefromOhio]

I think so too...

[Xenalyte]

Gertrude? How could you even think of doing that to a girl?

I guaran-damn-tee, any girl born today and named Gertrude by her parents WILL change her name to Kaetlyn and wear pasties and a g-string to work.

[Tatze]

What about Reinhold??

[cripplecreek]

My great grandmother's name was Zella.

[LongElegantLegs]

Stupid names and "creative" spellings that I have run across...
Girls:
Madisyn
Ryly
Reenyn
Avery Luzern
Caelen
Kamryn
Jadyn Makayla
Trevey

Boys:
Talon Duane
Nemosio
Che-Elan
Ryatt
Rhett Tripp
Jaxon
Keean

[RockinRight]

Sorry!!

I'll name my daughter Millee. If I ever have a daughter.

[Xenalyte]

I take baby names very seriously.

There are two steps parents can take with regard to their newborns, the taking of which helps 99% of the time and the omission of which hurts 99% of the time.

First is reading aloud to the child.

Second is giving the child a normal, non-made-up, no-bad-future-guaranteeing name. Jaden, Caden, Braden, Kayleigh, Nevaeh, whatever your friends are naming their babies, and anything beginning with La that is immediately followed by a capital letter or an apostrophe - shun them all.

[AmishDude]

I guaran-damn-tee, any girl born today and named Gertrude by her parents WILL change her name to Kaetlyn and wear pasties and a g-string to work.

Indeed, I knew a Gertrude-cum-Kaetlyn who did exactly that. A pity she worked as a CPA.

[DungeonMaster]

Triston is the worse.

[Xenalyte]

My grandmothers were Faye Belle and Elfa (!), and I had female ancestors rejoicing in the names Rosebud and Albertina Alaska . . . so you can guess how glad I was when my sister had an Abigail, and then an Emma-and-Elizabeth duo.

[arizonarachel]

pingerooni! Here are some ideas for the little one (LOL!)

[Millee]

[Xenalyte]

With regard to given names, hyphens are the same as apostrophes, and should be shunned as if plague-bearing.

The surest way to jack up a given name beyond repair is to introduce punctuation into it.

[Nabber]

By what source are they able to make this claim?

I don't believe it.

Only a scientific poll of birth certificates could make this claim, and it would have to be just a sample.

[MikefromOhio]

Braden is an Irish/Gaelic origin name, just like the name Aiden is.

It's NOT made up.

When you come from a nearly 100% Irish family like my brother and I do, those names aren't bad at all.

[Fierce Allegiance]

[Mr. Blonde]

My dad's idea was to name me Philo. I think the hope was that I would adopt the possibility of my silver screen name sake.

My mom was very against this idea and it took her until the 9th hour to come up with an alternative they agreed on.

[the OlLine Rebel]

I am sick of all the stupid, pretentious names on those lists. Not to mention hearing them around neighborhoods.

[subterfuge]

Have never heard the top 4 boys names. I have grandsons, 3 and 3 named Ethan and Elijah, fwiw.